Future X Hunter
by TheCreationHunters
Summary: "Sometimes, rookies never pass or reach the final phase for about ten years and all of a sudden a group of interesting rookies reaches the final phase at once." -Isaac Netero, 12th Chairman of the Hunter's Association.


"_Sometimes, rookies never pass or reach the final phase for about ten years and all of a sudden a group of interesting rookies reaches the final phase at once."_

_-Isaac Netero, 12th Chairman of the Hunter's Association._

Chapter 1 - Prologue

It was only the first week of January and the department store was already crowded. Some New Year decorations were still hanging, and a couple of items were still on discount. _'Buy two get one free!'_ read a label underneath a pair of bright red shoes. The number of people coming in was rapidly increasing. Well, maybe it was simply because the New Year Holidays still had a lot of time before it ends. However, there was another reason for that, which _very few_ had knowledge of. That for now, this department store would be _far from normal._

"Seriously, is this a bad joke?" The examinee asked as he furrows his brow.

The navigator held back a snicker_. "The examiner for this phase is pretty cool for making such a hilarious pass code."_

"No, I'm not joking." He grinned evilly, amused by the examinee's reaction. His smile widened, showing a row of white teeth with braces.

The examinee's face immediately flushed tomato red, either with anger or embarrassment. He shot the navigator a glare before looking away grudgingly. The examinee trudged grumpily into the store, leaving the navigator smirking after him.

Walking towards the customer service section, the examinee looked up and gulped. The store clerk at the counter looked at him and smiled.

"How can we help you?"

The examinee cleared his throat, but the code words seemed to be stuck in there. He looked around, hoping that no one would overhear him. Just then, by a stroke of pure unluckiness, a pretty young lady walked up next to him, a girl in her hadlong, straight silky black hair. A plastic shopping basket dangled from the crook of her arm. The pretty lady looked at the examinee, causing him to be extremely nervous. Her first impression of him would be ruined, if he said the pass code. He waited for a while, hoping against hope that the lady would leave, but she just continued staring at him. She innocently tilted her head, her hair moving to drape across one shoulder. Her curious blue eyes were trained on him. _Lady luck had abandoned him._

"Sir?"

Now both the pretty lady and the store clerk were staring at him.

"I- I would like to ask…" His whole face felt extremely hot. He really _did not_ want the lady to hear what he was about to say. The examinee muttered under his breath. _Curse whoever made this code._

"Yes, what do you need?" The store clerk, who had her dark brown hair tied into a bun, looked at him with her twinkling eyes. She looked at him with such eyes that he was so sure that she was just waiting for him to utter the pass code. The minute those horrendous words left his lips, she would throw back her head and laugh at him, he was sure of it. He didn't think he was hallucinating when he saw the corners of the store-clerk's lips curl upwards a bit, as her eyes glinted with mischievousness.

_Get ready for the humiliation, my dearest examinee._ He felt as if he were being taunted.

"I wanted to ask w-where is the…. The mixed toilet… y-you know, the toilet where… l-ladies and gents, g-go to the same toilet, the one that's not classified into genders…"

_Well that was extremely awkward._

He was sure he heard the store clerk giggle.

The lady beside him gave him a weird look. He looked down, gritting his teeth. The lady turned away, hiding her slight blush, and the examinee swore he heard her mumble, "Pervert."

The examinee groaned and kicked himself mentally.

Great. Now that cute girl would think that he was crazy and a total pervert. _Thanks a lot, Mr. Examiner._

The store clerk at the counter gestured for a younger man in the store's uniform to come closer, probably another store clerk. Well, that's what people would have thought, but the examinee knew different. This guy wasn't even supposed to be in the store on regular days. However, that day wasn't just any ordinary day. He was here for a special reason.

She handed the young man a small envelope, whichhe took and placed inside his uniform pocket.

"Please follow my colleague here; he will lead you to the - mixed toilet."

The store-clerk emphasized on the words "mixed toilet", and coughed lightly, disguising her smirk.

The examinee followed the young man in the uniform to a small, musty corner of the store. They did a good job in hiding this part of the store so that the regular shoppers would not simply barge into it. He then led him to a door, identical to the normal toilet doors in the store, except with one change. The icon for "ladies" and "gentlemen" on the door was replaced by a bizarre sign, a sign of two Xs, printed in Times New Roman font, black and bold. The diamond part in the middle of the two Xs was colored bright red. The examinee recognized it right away, and heaved a sigh of relief. At least now he was sure that he hadn't been tricked by a bad joke.

_That was, indeed, the symbol of the Hunters_.

The examiner reached out and placed his hand to the door knob, and turned it. _Or at least he tried to. _The door knob wouldn't budge.

The man chuckled. "Of course it's not for the public… That's what a key is for, _pervert_."

_Ouch._

Once again, the examinee turned a shade of scarlet, trying to swallow the humiliation.

The young man retrieved the envelope the store clerk had handed him earlier from his pocket, along with an ornately designed key. He carefully unsealed the white envelope and fished out a circular badge, numbered 792. He tossed it to the examinee, who caught it just in time.

"Heh, this year's applicants are flowing, almost at 800. Watch out for the examiners, they're sadistic this year."

The examinee frowned while putting his number on. Seriously, number 792? That was a pride-crusher. He had taken the exam around 3 times, the 290th, 293th, and 294th. He had given up on being a hunter for 3 years and just when he had decided to try his luck again, he ended up being one of the last few numbers in. Not too great of a start for a veteran like himself.

The young man inserted the key into the key hole and turned it until a dull _click_ was heard. Then he patted the shoulder of the examinee and grinned.

"You're going to be the last one in", he chuckled. "So lucky. Now off you go, before the exam starts."

_Last one in counted as lucky!?_ The examinee fumed. He was the last one; this veteran was the last one. That wasn't very encouraging.

The young man's grin widened, revealing crooked teeth. His eyes were a light sky-blue, and his mop of brown hair looked long and untidy. The grin made the examinee feel even more insecure.

"Go inside and choose any toilet cubicle. And don't forget to follow the toilet procedure," the man winked mysteriously.

"W-wait, a toilet pro-" The examinee started, but before he could say any more, the young man turned the door knob and gave him a slight shove and the examinee stumbled inside.

"Off you go! Just read the instructions. Good luck!" That was the last thing the man said before he slammed the door shut.

The examinee took a deep breath - and regretted it. He gagged. The bathroom reeked of rotten fish and sewer water. His face was shaped into a horrid grimace as he pushed the door of the nearest cubicle open with a single finger and stepped inside, ignoring the squelching of a slimy substance below his shoes. He saw a note pinned to the cabin door.

"_Toilet Procedure"_ it read in bold lettering.

_They really weren't joking._

_"Step one, sit on the cistern."_

Okay, that was easy enough. The examinee sat on the cistern and he read the second step.

_"Step two, Get Ready."_

Ready? What for?

"Step three, push the flush button."

_Push the flush button? But why?_ He shrugged. _Only one way to find out._ He pushed it.

The normal flushing sound of the toilet bowl was heard.

Nothing was happening.

…

…

…

...

He shouldn't have said that.

The sounds of rushing water grew louder and louder. Suddenly, there was a deep rumbling, and the entire toilet bowl disappeared into a hole in the floor that had opened out of nowhere. Right below the cistern, a slide extended, dripping wet with dirty water. Then, in a rush of immense water pressure, foul-smelling sewage water erupted from the cistern, propelling the examinee off his perch on top of the cistern and landing face first onto the slimy slide. Shoot, he should have predicted that. _A trapdoor with a water slide? _How did he not see that coming? The examinee looked up as he fell and caught a glimpse of the Step four on the procedure.

_"Step four, you will fall miserably, into the exam grounds. Have fun!"_

_Curse that examiner._

The examinee yelled loudly, trying to get a proper grip, but the slide was too slippery. Just when he thought that was bad enough, a huge amount of water flowed out of the cistern and down the slide, splashing all over his body. He gagged, smelling the stinking water. The gurgling water began flowing extremely fast and the examinee screeched as he was swept down the tunnel slide. He felt slimy algae under his hands and immediately guessed that this was a sewage pipe. He slid down rapidly, the water current carrying him at double the speed he would have gone when he was dry. The pipe had a steep drop, almost vertical. It makes an impression of falling down a deep well, where one would never see land or light ever again.

The examiner fell until he hit the surface of cold, bone-chilling water. The pressure of the water slide pushed him deep under water, but he managed to swim back to the surface, gasping for air, albeit with a little pain in his legs and arms. Some of the participants, just like him, had just arrived, making a huge wave in the water. The examinee took the opportunity to look around, blinking out the dirty water from his stinging eyes. They were in a huge tunnel, filled with water. The end of the tunnel is dark and not visible, and they couldn't see land. The ceiling was a high arc, and the examinee guessed that they were all in a large sewer.

A sewer…?

Didn't he descend from a toilet cabin?

Cautiously, he took a whiff of the place. He gagged for nearly the fourth time that day. The thought of being underground in a dirty sewer where most people throw garbage into was revolting. At that thought, he lost most of his motivation. He hoped that after a few phases, the examiners would be kind and let them rest in a place where there was clean water to wash up.

A number of the examinees were looking down at their drenched clothes, disgusted expressions plastered to their scornful faces. He was pretty satisfied that he had taken a step faster than them. He looked around and observed the rookies he'd never met before.

While treading water nearer to the large group of examinees assembled a distance away from the pipe slides, he caught a glimpse of two red haired girls, with similar hairstyles. Their hairs are both tied into two ponytails; the only difference he saw is that one's hair is messier and unkempt while the other one had neater and longer hair. They didn't look like they knew each other, however, and they didn't appear to be sisters either. One had bright red eyes and the other had green. Both of them looked harmless enough; they were just kids. Except the one wearing punk styled clothes with lots of metal, that could be potentially dangerous and the other one had something intimidating in her. She wore a normal sleeveless blue shirt, but there was something he found intimidating about her.

His eyes kept scanning, until he found another newbie, a boy with bubblegum-pink hair and a mole under his eye, approaching a smaller boy in black hair. The former looks worried about the latter, yet the latter seems to ignore his warning and smiles. No danger from those two either.

He glanced around, and surprisingly, he found a lot of new faces. He found two applicants with blonde hair and small statures. One wore a blue coat and a hat while the other had reddish eyes. They looked mildly interesting. He spotted another one, with short blue hair with a white streak wearing a black beanie. He couldn't even tell if he was a boy or a girl. He (she?) looked bored.

There was a small girl with black hair and blue may have seemed small at first, but she had an air of maturity about her.

Three girls with pink hair, one of whom had her hair tied into two bunches and was wearing a yellow hoodie, the other with her hair in a high pony tail, and the last with her hair down. The first two appeared nonchalant while the third seemed rather exuberant, grinning widely.

He spotted another girl with two ponytails and bangs, who had a ribbon tied to her collar. She appeared to be innocent-looking.

There was a girl with blond hair and a teal green hoodie and her striking violet eyes sparkled mischievously.

Another one was a small boy with white spiky hair, an excited expression plastered on his face.

And last but not least, a small-sized girl with dark purple hair. She had a pleasant smile on her face.

All of them were kids, a bunch of under-17-year-olds.

_Was taking the Hunter exam some kind of trend for teens these days?_

_What a pity._

_This exam is not a playground for kids._

_It is a matter of life and death._

_And these pitiful kids joining in, thinking it's all fun and games._

_All of them will probably be crying and begging for their parents to be back by their side soon enough._

_Sorry to disappoint you, Mr. Examinee. But you know nothing of them._

_I doubt they will do such things, I doubt they will "beg and cry for their parents" like you so carelessly assumed_.

_They are a bunch of independent, interesting rookies._

_I daresay they will do much better than you will do, Mr. Examinee..._

_Let's just see what awaits~_

To be continued...

Chapter 1 – First Phase, part I [Mukki and Leo]

**Okay so…**

**Testing, testing, is this thing really in now? I'm not dreaming? Yes?**

**[Insert screaming here]**

**:DD So, us creators have been working on this project for a while now, it's awesome that it does end up in . We took a lot in writing it I guess, we started it at around last December and with all of the writer's block and lazy days, things finally got better months after.**

**So now, I shall give thanks to everybody out there who supported us, readers, the other creators, and Yoshihiro Togashi and his awesome creation Hunter X Hunter.**

**Reviews are appreciated! So please leave some if you don't mind~**

**DISCLAIMERS (this will take a while…)**

**First Draft © Soru**

**First Beta © EndlessAbyss**

**Second Beta © Xae Skylen**

**Hunter X Hunter and the canon characters © Yoshihiro Togashi**

**The Characters © The Hunting Creators~**


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